Global existence theory for fractional differential equations: new advances via continuation methods for contractive maps (Q2291760)

The aim of this article is to obtain new results for the existence of global solutions of nonlinear fractional differential equations by the use of continuation methods for contractive maps. First the authors consider the following initial value problem with Caputo fractional derivatives of order \(q \in (0,1)\): \[ ^CD^q(x - x(0)) = f(t, x), \ \ 0 < q < 1,\tag{1} \] \[ x(0) = A, \tag{2} \] where \(A\) is a constant, \(f : R \to \mathbb{R}\) with \(R\) a rectangle in \(\mathbb{R}^2\) defined by \[ R = \{(t, p) \in \mathbb{R}^2 : 0 \leq t \leq 1 \ \text{and} \ |p - A| \leq K \}, \ K > 0. \] The authors show that, under a local Lipschitz condition and a priori bounds on solutions to a certain family of problems, the problem (1), (2) will admit a unique, global solution. The authors ensure this through an application of a constructive version of continuation methods for contractive maps. Then the authors extend their ideas to the general case \(q > 0\) considering the initial problem \[ ^CD^q(x - x(0)) = f(t, x), \ \ t \in [0,1], \quad q >0,\tag{3} \] \[ x(0) = A_0, \ x'(0)=A_1, \ \dots, \ x^{([q]-1)}(0)=A_{[q]-1}, \tag{4} \] where \([q]\) is the cailing value of \(q\) and \(A_i\) are constants and \(f : S \to \mathbb{R}\) with \(S\) a finite strip in \(\mathbb{R}^2\) defined by \[ S = \{(t, p) \in \mathbb{R}^2 : 0 \leq t \leq 1 \ \text{and} \ \left| p - \sum\limits_{i=0}^{[q]-1} \frac{A_i}{i!} t^i \right| \leq K \}, \ K > 0. \] Through similar arguments, for the problem (3), (4) the authors obtain sufficient conditions under which global existence, uniqueness, approximation and location of solutions are ensured. An example illustrating the obtained results is given too.